


Off the Court

by speedrunner



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Basketball AU, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:13:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24958945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/speedrunner/pseuds/speedrunner
Summary: Adora hasn’t stopped crying.The game is over, her ponytail is out and she’s sitting on the floor outside of the gym. She knows that she should be happy they won the game, but something is holding her back from that feeling. From the side she hears footsteps approaching.
Relationships: Adora & Catra (She-Ra), Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 128





	Off the Court

Adora hasn’t stopped crying.

The game is over, her blonde hair is out of her ponytail and she’s sitting on the floor outside of the gym. She knows she should be happy they won the game, but something is holding her back from that feeling. From the side she hears footsteps approaching.

She wipes her blue eyes with the back of her hand and then her jersey. She doesn’t want to look up hoping that the person who is coming will just ignore her.

“Everything alright?”

“Well there goes that chance” Adora thinks. As much as she doesn’t want to respond, she also doesn’t want to be completely rude. It’s not in her nature. When she looks to the side she sees a pair of roughed up basketball shoes.

The last thing she needs is a teammate trying to comfort her right now. However, that can’t be the case the because she told Glimmer and Bo she would meet them at the bus. As she keeps looking up she sees a white jersey with burgundy outlines. She sighs. It’s someone from the other team. 

Her eyes keep trailing up until they reach this person’s face, eyes with two different colors: yellow and blue, short hair that's a little bit messy after the game. And not only is this a member of the other team, but their captain, Catra. Standing in the dim light coming from the inside of the gym her posture is still one that has confidence even after a loss. She has a hand on her hip and a water bottle in the other, but the more Adora sees her face she can tell something is lingering. “Maybe not all confidence” she thinks.

“Uh yea?” She doesn’t say it convincingly enough.

Not that it really would’ve mattered considering she’s sitting on the ground crying. She mostly hopes she can get this over with quickly. Not really in the mood to talk.

“Hmm for someone who just won that doesn’t seem to be the case.”

“Well we all take our wins in differently ways don’t we.”

Adora is fully aware that people don’t usually cry after a win in the regular season. And while Catra doesn’t necessarily point this out she does push the topic a bit.

“Possibly, but somethings definitely bothering you.”

“Well what does it matter to you?”

She knows she’s being rude, but she can’t bring herself to care too much.

“Nothing, I guess.”

“Then why did you come over?”

“I’m not really sure myself.”

Unexpectedly, Catra takes a seat down next to her. Adora doesn’t know what’s happening and why the team captains from opposite schools are now sitting next to each other. She does know that she is still crying. Great. Adora can feel eyes on her, but she can’t bring herself to look back.

She hears Catra sigh and say:

“You don’t have to tell me what’s wrong, but you should know that a win is something you should be proud of?”

What she said is true, but

“How can you be proud when you practically lost the team the entire game.” Adora exhales out and can almost feel the tears coming on again.

“Doesn’t look like you lost from what the score said.” Catra sighs out

Catra is getting a little bit annoyed. She knows its not fair considering she’s the one who came over, but honestly who starts crying over a game they won. She tries to hold back the anger she feels starting to rise.

“Yea well when you do your job wrong then you’ve failed.”

Adora brings her knees to her chest and puts her head down. Nothing is worse than letting your team down when they are expecting leadership out of you.

“You know I have a friend that constantly reminds me that we are all on a team for a reason: to make up for each other’s mistakes. I don’t always listen to her, especially when she starts practically shouting for me across the room, but sometimes she’s gotta be right. Or at least I have to make an attempt to believe that.”

Adora thinks about what Catra said for a moment, but still can’t help feeling like she failed. She lifts her head up and changes the subject because something does strike her as odd.

“You seem to be taking the loss quite well.”

“Oh, believe me I’m not, but something told me to come over here and talk to you. I already know I’m going to the locker room and am going to feel the need to throw something”

Catra tries to make it sound like a joke, but Adora can tell there is some truth to that statement. She wants to say something that would help, but it would only come off as patronizing considering she’s on the winning team.

This situation is completely odd, but Adora can’t help but feel an odd pull for the person who came to talk to her. There is no time to talk because the bus is waiting for, but she can’t leave it here. There is only one thing that comes to Adora’s mind.

“Do you want to practice together sometime?”

To say that Catra looked shocked would be an understatement.

“Why would two people from rival schools who just met want to practice with each other?”

“I don’t know, but you said that something made you come over here, and now something is telling me that we should meet up again sometime.”

Catra looks pensive, but takes the offer anyway, surprising both of them yet again.

“We can meet up at the First Ones Gym on Saturday at 2pm”

“Okay then sounds like a plan”

They both get up from what they consider to be the weirdest exchange of the night if not the entire year. They say their goodbyes and head in opposite directions, Adora to the buses, and Catra to the locker room.

* * *

Catra is not entirely sure what happened or why she felt she had to go and comfort a person from the team she just lost to. Especially their CAPTAIN. She could’ve just walked away, but in an uncharacteristic turn of events she walked up.

She knows about Adora. Hell, everyone knows about Adora, one of the best point guards in their region. Coming from a line of pro basketball players, her name was bound to come up whenever her college career started. Catra’s not really fond of her. She seems to have it all. People expect greatness from her. For Catra all that’s expected is failure. Even if she does something good, she’s just reminded that it could’ve been done better.

But seeing her cry (even after a win) threw Catra off. She felt the need to go and see what was wrong. She’s still not even entirely sure what happened.

As she enters the locker room, she’s sees some of her teammates, Scorpia and Entrapta.

Scorpia is the teams center. She has short white hair, a strong frame, and is the tallest one of the team. Most importantly she is always the most dependable one out on the court from tip off. Catra knows that if she sends the ball into the post that Scorpia will not hesitate to put it in the basket. They had their differences in the beginning. Stemming from two completely different mindsets. Scorpia being an all out team player and Catra believing she can get the team by on mostly her efforts alone. It took quite a bit of time and a couple of (almost) team breaking arguments, but they became a fearsome duo on the court.

Entrapta is not one to sell short either. She is one of the smaller members of the team she has extra long purple hair and opts to wear it in pigtails (and somehow makes it work in game). Being the teams shooting guard she consistently works on her form to make her 3-point field goal percentage reach 60%. Not only is she reliable in her shot, but she also makes sure to take in all of the team members stats and base future trainings on what should be worked on for the team.

Scorpia notices her from her peripheral, and never one to be taken down by a loss, booms

“Hey, Wildcat where’d ya go?”

“Just had to take care of something real quick.”

“Ah okay! Can I help with anything? You know I love helping.”

Scorpia, probably the nicest person on the plant, for some reason is always willing to look out for Catra. She’s not entirely sure why, but she tries her best to appreciate it.

“Uh I’m good right now. Just gotta process the game and the night I guess.”

“Remember no throwing anything. If something breaks again, I can’t find a way to cover it up this time”

Scorpia knows her a little too well and she doesn’t know exactly how to feel about that. In the end she just gives a sly smile and looks toward Entrapta.

“Entrapta let me get a look at the stats sheet before you take them home and do god knows what and they’re gone forever.”

Entrapta looks to her and smiles.

“What would I do to them? Well doesn’t matter, we can look over them together, but don’t tear them up when you see your assist percentages okay?” Entrapta doesn’t mean to insult Catra, but the data does speak for itself.

“I’m not gonna rip up the stupid piece of paper Entrapta.”

“Well given previous times you’ve asked the assumption isn’t entirely implausible”

“I’m working on it”

Catra gets the paper in her hands and starts looking at the numbers. To her surprise Entrapta managed to get both teams’ stats. Probably to figure out the other team’s strengths and work out how their team can work around them. Catra’s eyes gravitate to the name near the middle of the page, Adora.

She’s not really surprised to see that Adora’s stats are not only consistent throughout all 4 quarters, but they’re also in double digits. That’s an impressive feat for anyone, especially a college student and it only leaves Catra more confused on to what Adora meant when she said her team almost lost the game because of her.

* * *

Saturday comes a lot more quickly than either of them expect. The game was on Tuesday, but in the blink of an eye Adora is walking into First Ones Gym with her duffle bag and basketball ready to practice again.

Suggesting practice might not have been the brightest idea considering Bright Moon Academy holds practices five days a week, but Adora is the most familiar with practice and believes her time is best used there.

The clock reads 1:59 and she sees Catra enter the doors to the basketball court. Catra is wearing a burgundy Dri-Fit sleeveless shirt, black basketball shorts and a pair of black Nikes. Similarly, Adora is wearing a navy blue Dri-Fit sure along with white shorts, and white Nikes.

Their eyes meet and they make their way over to one another.

“Hey” they both say at the same time

“So, I figured we could make this easy and start with a couple of sprints on the court to warm up, then run some basic dribbling drills, continue on with free throw practice, back to dribbling…”

“Whoa there looks like you got the whole plan set up already.” Catra exclaims.

“Well no point in wasted effort.”

Catra didn’t really know what to expect coming in. To be fair she also didn’t think she would be practicing with the best point guard in their region. Adora reminds her of Entrapta a little. Mostly with just how prepared she is with a plan to start working on.

“Fair enough” Catra answers back.

“Cool let’s start then.”

And so, they start off with stretching. 10 minutes of individual stretching and then… running. Neither of them actually like conditioning, but it’s a (unfortunately) necessary part of the sport. They time themselves: 10 seconds for a back and forth sprint on the court, 1 minute for 5 times back and forth. They repeat that twice not wanting to completely wear themselves out before the rest of the practice.

Next comes dribbling drills. They both know all the drills when it comes to these practices. First comes dribbling at the ankles, knees, waist, head, and back all the way down. Then dribbling the ball from side to side. After, comes taking it cross court while dribbling between the legs. When they’re done with that, they do the same thing behind the back. These drills are simple for them. They’re both point guards and have been practicing this for a long while now.

Shooting practice starts with layup drills, into free throws, lastly 3 pointers across the outer line. They’ve been able to keep pace with each one another the entire time. Both are very competitive and neither want to lose. Lose what? It’s always a little about pride when it comes to sports. However, they get a little playful and Adora stirs up a little competition from the half court line.

“Hey wanna have a competition?”

“What kind?”

“Half court shots”

Honestly a half court shot competition sounds ridiculous to Catra, but this whole practice thing they’ve been doing all day has been completely weird. Not the drills, but the fact that they are practicing together at all. Adora has taken her by surprise. From the beginning of the day she’s been extra prepared, not taking one moment to slack off in her practice. Catra felt the need to make sure there wasn’t a chance she could fall behind. They are pretty equal in athleticism, but now she feels the need to prove it. A silly competition is out of nowhere, but it can’t hurt she assumes.

“Okay fine, what does the winner get?”

“Hmm I didn’t really think about that, but how about instead of the winner getting something the loser gets a punishment?”

“That could work too”

“Extra running drills”

“Well now I know I have to try extra hard now”

They both laugh a little. And the air feels a little lighter between the them both, while simultaneously their competitive spirit goes up.

The competition takes about 20 minutes and Catra is declared the winner after being the first to score 5 half court shots. Adora is leaning over with her hands on her knees. She is a little annoyed that she lost but knows that she has to accept her punishment for the competition she started.

“Yea!”

Catra exclaims excited she doesn’t have to do extra running drills. She sees Adora and feels the need to tease her a little bit.

“Aww sad you lost the half court contest” she attempts.

“Let’s just get this punishment over with.”

Catra can see a shift in demeanor in Adora. Her brows are furrowed, and her eyes take on a bit of a harder edge to them. A little taken aback by this Catra backs off and decides to list the requirements.

“Along with the running drills we are already going to do, now you’re are going 10 sprints back and forth in 2 minutes and 30 seconds. If you fail, you have to start over again.”

Adora looks back at Catra and nods her head in understanding. They finish their last running drills together and all that’s left is for Adora is to do the last punishment.

“Go!” Catra signals her to start.

Adora is off. Catra can see the sweat from a long days’ worth of practice. Again, Adora is taking her by surprise again because as she’s looking at her, she can’t help but be a little taken with how pretty she is even after a hard workout.

A minute left on the clock and Adora is about to start on her sixth sprint. She’s making good pace, and she hopes to finish strong. Nothing is on her mind other than the frustration of the last game to keep her going.

Catra on the other hand is only growing more curious about Adora. This whole situation is just weird. Why are they here together? Are they friends? Do they want to be? Maybe she’s not as collected as she seems? Catra wants to know more about her.

Adora finishes her last sprint with 2 seconds to spare on the clock. She turns and sees Catra standing on the sideline staring at her.

“Did I make it in time?”

“Oh yea.” Catra snaps out of being distracted “2 seconds to spare.”

They both go and grab their towels and water bottles and sit on the sidelines. Post practice fatigue is real. Sleep is going to come quick for them both when they get home.

Adora’s edge seems to have cooled down a little. A result from a hard run. She turns to Catra and says

“Thanks for the other day.”

“I didn’t really do anything.”

“You came and checked on me even when you had zero reason to. I appreciate that.”

The honesty catches Catra off guard. She wishes she could understand how to show her appreciation about the people she cares about without ruining it with the negative emotions that consume her.

“No problem… I guess” she replies not entirely sure what to say.

“All my life I’ve had expectations for me in regards of how I’m supposed to be. I like having people rely on me, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes I feel like I’m not able to breathe. After the game on Tuesday, yea we won, but there were mistakes I made that could’ve cost us the game. Knowing that I… made so many mistakes frustrated me. Losing on my own is one thing. I can handle that, but failing my team is something I can’t stand.”

“Not to sound weird, but I saw everyone’s stats for that game, and you managed to get a triple double. Not many people do that let alone average that for the season.”

Catra looks at Adora trying to process what she’s hearing. Normally, she would be annoyed at someone for complaining about doing well. However, looking at Adora’s downcast eyes she recognizes a pain not completely unfamiliar to her own. So, she does something she doesn’t do often. She opens up. Just a little.

“I didn’t really like you before. It always seemed like you had it all. Someone that didn’t have to work to be recognized. So different than me but hearing the way to talk and the way you practice I don’t think that’s the case. No matter how hard I worked there were only people there to tell me the problems. Criticism is one thing, but never having success appreciated can tear into you. Even being one of the best point guards in the region there is always someone better, and everybody always makes that clear to me.”

She speaks a lot more than she expected to. Couldn’t really help it after Adora talked about how she felt. Their feelings are similar but have manifested differently. Adora’s pain happens internally and Catra takes hers out more externally.

“So we both got problems huh?”

Adora stretches her legs out and puts her hands on the floor behind her back.

“Yea I guess so.”

Catra mirrors her position on the floor except puts her hands by her sides.

They stay quiet for a while. Neither of them really knows what to say, but there is a certain comfort sitting with someone who can understand how you feel. 

“I want to see you again”

Adora is not looking at her as she says this out loud. Catra is not entirely sure what she is feeling, but she can tell the she wants to see Adora again sometime too.

“You want to keep practicing on Saturdays”

“Yea we can continue. You definitely keep me on my toes like no one ever has before.”

Catra feels a swell of pride at hearing that, and Adora continues

“But I also want to see you outside of basketball, I think we can be good for each other outside of the sport too.”

Catra is not entirely sure what Adora means by that, but she feels if they continue on together she’ll get an answer.

“I think I’d like that too.”

Adora moves her hands to her side and accidently brushes against Catra’s who jumps a little. They both felt a spark, but neither make a comment on it. Not exactly sure what they would say or if it was in their own heads.

“Do you want to go get something to eat?” Catra asks “Can’t be healthy to only be drinking water after practice.”

“Sure, I know this place that sells great burgers.” Adora is excited as she says it.

“We practice and then gorge?” Catra laughs a little bit.

“We can consider it our protein for the day. How about that?”

“Who would’ve guessed food is the one thing you slacked on”

Adora pushes Catra a little bit and now they both have smiles on their faces. They start to stand up and prepare for a quick wash up in the gym showers. They each take their turns. Catra goes in first and takes her time. She comes out of the bathroom with her hair still wet, but now she is wearing a pair of black shorts with a gray tank top. Adora finds that her heart might’ve stopped for a second when Catra came out.

“Your turn.”

Adora shakes her a head a little and heads towards the showers. Catra is waiting for Adora outside of the bathroom and she comes out hair still wet and now down. She also changed her clothes to something more comfortable opting for a pair of black sweatpants and a white t shirt with a black Nike logo on it. Catra finds that her heart might’ve stopped for a second when Adora came out.

“Ready to go?”

Adora snaps her out of it with those words.

“Yea”

They grab their duffle bags and baseketballs and start to head out.

“Do you want to take my car?” Adora asks “I know where the place is and you won’t have to waste gas, Ill just bring you back when we’re done.”

Catra thinks it over for a second. It’s an opportunity to spend more time with Adora so she takes it.

“Yea for sure”

“Cool then come with me. These will the best burgers of your life.”

“You’d better not disappoint after all this hype.”

She says it seriously, but the atmosphere around them feels as if they know they can joke with each other at this point.

They put their belongings into the trunk of Adora’s car and head to the front seats. Adora hands Catra the AUX cord. It’s only fair.

The car backs out and they begin to drive off.

They don’t know how to explain it to themselves yet, but they both feel as if this was an encounter that will shape their futures not only as individuals, but together.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not too sure how I feel about this, but I want to put it out there for my sake and something to look back on lmaoo
> 
> Also, a 60% 3 point percentage is ridiculous 
> 
> If you've made it this far thanks for checking the story out. I appreciate it.


End file.
